


in sunsets

by theprincesjester



Series: How Do You Measure A Year? (Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes) [Seasons Of Love] [1]
Category: Gattaca (1997)
Genre: Gen, also yes this series is going to be all over the place it'll. maybe make sense eventually?, but you can pretend that it's their dad or literally anyone else, i promise he'll be in future parts, implied jerome morrow death, it's fine, whoops i may have made myself sad thinking about it as jerome dying but y'know what
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:06:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26169145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theprincesjester/pseuds/theprincesjester
Summary: The sun is bright on his eyes, and he raises a hand to shield them. Beside him, his younger brother squints, looking down at the sand. They’re children, still; yet Vincent knows that their parents prefer Anton, that he is some sort of strange outlier to their lives."Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes/How do you measure, measure a year?"
Relationships: Anton Freeman & Vincent Freeman
Series: How Do You Measure A Year? (Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes) [Seasons Of Love] [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1900369
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11





	in sunsets

**Author's Note:**

> i was originally going to do this for a wip i've been working on, but then i started having Feelings for gattaca again so i decided to write it for this, too (i might still do it for the other wip eventually) 
> 
> in which i made myself a little bit sad because i thought of vincent coming back home from titan to find that jerome has died (but we can pretend that jerome is still alive and that they're talking about someone else)

_ The sun is bright on his eyes, and he raises a hand to shield them. Beside him, his younger brother squints, looking down at the sand. They’re children, still; yet Vincent knows that their parents prefer Anton, that he is some sort of strange outlier to their lives.  _

_ He tries not to let that affect how he treats his younger brother, he really does. But sometimes he still feels the need to prove himself, which—  _

_ Is how they ended up here, sun burning their eyes as it begins to set. They should probably be getting home soon, he vaguely thinks— _

He’s taller than his brother, now. They aren’t children, but god, he wishes that they were, somewhere deep down. Things are so… complicated, now, even if he’s finally gotten where he’s always wanted to be. 

Vincent takes in a deep breath, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Some things never change, huh?” he decides on. Anton huffs, acknowledging him. 

“Yet it feels so different,” Anton tacks onto the end, shrugging. Vincent nods. He can’t disagree. 

After everything… 

Vincent shakes his head, as if willing the thoughts away. “It does.” He agrees. “It does,”

They both look out onto the water (the same water that they swam in as boys, the same water that they almost know as well as the backs of their hands and yet is almost a stranger to them now), watching as the sun begins to set. 

They’ve made their peace, for the most part. It’s a start, for the both of them. 

“Swim?” Anton asks, beginning to shrug off his heavier coat. 

“Yes.” Vincent decides, without much thinking. This is still what they do, what they did and will probably continue to do for as long as time will allow. 

The water is still fairly warm, as they dive in and begin the swim to the other side. They’ve called off the competition, for now; it feels almost unnecessary, and they’re here… 

They’re here because they chose to be, because they had figured that maybe it would help. Provide some closure after everything, maybe. 

_ Neither can quite remember who starts it, first, but they find that wrestling in the water, while dangerous, is an activity that they can both get some amount of joy from.  _

“How are you, really?” Anton finally asks him, once they’re both sitting on the sand again, wrapped in towels and looking across the water. Vincent sucks in a deep breath. 

“Honestly? I don’t know.” he says it carefully, not wanting to release too much at one time. He picks up a rock and begins to rub the sand off of it, turning it around in his fingers. 

Anton nods. 

“Titan was… it was beautiful,” Vincent amends. “How are you?” 

“You’re still avoiding the topic, Vince. And I’m… alright,” 

Vincent shrugs, jerking a shoulder, and looks down at the rock in his hand. “What is there to talk about?” 

“It’s been a lot--” Anton starts, but cuts himself off with a shake of the head. “I know that things have been… hectic. Especially with us, before you left. But,” he sighs. “I don’t know. It’s not like we can go back and stop what happened,” and there, he nudges his brother. Vincent half-smiles, huffing his laugh. 

“Yeah. That’s putting it simply. God, things are so… different now, huh? Never thought that…” 

“We’d be here, like this,” Anton finishes for him. He can sense that everything is still perhaps a bit too raw. Vincent nods. Anton waits a beat before adding, “He was proud of you, you know.” 

Vincent almost chokes out his laugh, this time, and when Anton looks over at him he can see his older brother attempting to hide his glassy eyes. “He was. He thought you were great, Vince. I do too.” and at that, Vincent can barely keep himself together, and Anton carefully--awkwardly--pulls his older brother in for a side-hug, in an attempt to comfort him. 

Things were still rocky, to say the least, but this… 

This was a start. 


End file.
